1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an upper substrate, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) apparatus having the same and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly to an upper substrate for reducing misoperations, an LCD apparatus having the same and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information processing devices have been developed to include various shapes and functions with rapid data processing speed. The information processing devices include an interface such as a display device for displaying information processed in the form of an electric signal.
LCD apparatuses having a light weight and a compact size, as compared with a CRT type display device, have been developed to achieve full-color and high-resolution functions.
The LCD apparatus includes an LCD panel for displaying an image and a backlight assembly for providing light to the LCD panel, which is disposed under the LCD panel.
The LCD panel includes a color filter substrate, an array substrate and a liquid crystal molecules interposed between the color filter and array substrates. The LCD panel changes an arrangement of liquid crystal molecules by applying a voltage to the liquid crystal molecules and controls an amount of the light provided from the backlight assembly to display the image.
The color filter and array substrates are spaced from each other by a spacer disposed between the color filter and array substrates. The spacer maintains a gap between the color filter and array substrates to prevent the form of the liquid crystal molecules from being changed and properties of the LCD apparatus from being deteriorated.
The spacer is classified into a ball spacer having a ball shape and distributed over the color filter substrate or the array substrate and a rigid spacer disposed on the color filter substrate or the array substrate. The rigid spacer is formed by forming an organic layer on the color filter substrate or the array substrate and patterning the organic layer. The ball spacer is randomly distributed over the color filter substrate or the array substrate, so that the ball spacer may be disposed on an effective display area of the LCD apparatus. The randomly distributed ball spacer may cause a deterioration of an opening ratio (an effective display area/a total area) of the LCD apparatus and the LCD apparatus may have a non-uniform cell gap because a size of the ball spacer is not uniform.
On the contrary, since the rigid spacer is formed by removing the organic layer on the effective display area except a non-effective display area of the LCD apparatus, the opening ratio of the LCD apparatus may be not deteriorated and the LCD apparatus may have a uniform cell gap. Thus, the rigid spacer has been generally used to LCD apparatus.
Recently, the gate and data driving circuits disposed on the array substrate of the LCD panel are formed with a thin film process. In this case, the array substrate is divided into a display area on which a TFT is disposed and a driving area on which the gate and data driving circuits are disposed for driving the TFT. The spacer is disposed between the color filter substrate and the array substrate and may be disposed on only the display area or on the display and driving areas.
When an external force is applied to the LCD panel in which the spacer is disposed on only the display area, the color filter and array substrates may electrically come in contact with each other because a common electrode disposed on the color filter substrate makes contact with the gate and data driving circuits disposed on the array substrate.
Also, when the external impact is applied to the LCD panel in which the spacer is disposed on the display and driving areas, the spacer presses the gate and data driving circuits, so that circuits and wirings of the LCD panel may be damaged. As a result, the gate and data driving circuits may not provide driving signals to corresponding data and gate lines disposed on the LCD panel, thereby deteriorating a quality of the image displayed through the LCD panel.